My subscription list in my google reader is getting quite long. But that's ok. There is a lot of entertaining and educational stuff out there on ye ol' internets. Two sites that I recently stumbled across and enjoy checking out every day.

• straight cash homey dot net - The premise is so simple. People send this cat pictures from the "wild" of individuals wearing out of date or embarassing sports jerseys. The author posts one pic each day, along with a snarky little commentary on the jersey in question. It's pretty funny, though you'll have to come to the table with a decent amount of sports knowledge to get the humor. The other problem is that today is the first day in forever that a pg-13 picture is posted, so it might be best to wait until tomorrow to visit the site. Special bonus: best webiste name I have ever come across. On a regular basis I find myself uttering, "Yeah! Straight cash, homey."
  
• End Politics as Usual - A self proclaimed "33-year-old Moderate Republican Female living in Kansas". She really doesn't like Hillary Clinton, so if you are a Clinton supporter you should just steer clear. And she is a KU fan. And she tends to like Obama. If you can deal with all of that, then head on over. You'll get a lot of funny comments, as well as posts that help you keep up with some of the interviews that the candidates are doing.

Fair DInkum

Let's stop kidding ourselves and just make this blog hiatus official, shall we?

Clearly I do not have the time nor energy to blog on a regular basis. Totally a me problem. Actually, make that a me and my terribly unhealthy schedule problem.

So we're putting this bad boy on ice until April 28. By then I will have finished all of my school work, we will be done with our ministry program year, and I will begin the process of spiritual/mental/emotional/physical healing that the grind of this semester will necessitate.

So instead of weak once-weekly posts, we'll have no posts for four weeks. And then we'll get at it just like we used to back in the glory days.

I'll still be updating my shared reads and interesting links, so if you start to get nostalgic you can check back in and peep the sidebars.


Catch ya on the flip.

Google Reader is certainly a double-edged sword. It is a great application for keeping track of blogs and news sites that I enjoy reading, but it's almost too efficient. There is a lot of good and/or entertaining stuff out there, and it's impossible to read it all. I try to throw a couple of interesting finds into the "Interesting Reads" box to the right, but there are three blogs I would like to specifically call out today as they have really pushed me to think hard about some issues recently.

• Jesus Creed is kept up by Scot McKnight, who is a professor at North Park University. I don't know how he does it, but he manages to keep a couple of really good threads up in the air at any given time. Right now there is a thread on the Kingdom of God as well as one on God's Competitors that are both excellent. Each entry is brief, but he throws down some questions at the end of each post for the general public to think about and respond to.

• Kruse Kronicle is authored by a fellow Kansas Citian and Christ-follower, and focuses on faith and economics. There are plenty of posts that point in the direction of magazine and journal articles, and there are also a lot of original takes. A word to the wise: it's deep. As a person who is trying to sort out why free market philosophies make me uncomfortable, it is helpful because it helps me understand better the paradigm. However, I have no intention of getting into any debates with the author. The dude knows his stuff and would argue me under the table in no time flat.
  

• What's Race Got to do With It? This is a fantastic site authored by a white woman who is now living in the predominately black neighborhood that I work in. She doesn't post all that often, but when she does post it is deep and raw. Really raw. In fact, a lot of white people who have not lived in the 'hood will probably disagree with her, but I think that her actions should compell one to graciously listen to her opinions and not light up her blog with negative blasts if you don't agree.

Fair Dinkum

The blog got a much-needed makeover this week. Just a little visual sprucing, along with a nice practical feature. I've always struggled with what I should do with interesting and funny content that I come across on the internet. If someone has already blogged it, I don't particularly like recycling it on my own blog. But at the same time, there is some stuff out there that needs to be shared.

Enter Google's Shared Items feature.

I have become a huge fan of feeds for my favorite blogs. Google has a nice reader application that allows me to subscribe to blogs and have the posts neatly organized in a gmail interface for me as entries are posted. It is especially convenient for keeping with those people who are not regular in their blogging habits. Instead of being frustrated every time I check their blog to find that it has been neglected for a period of time, I am delighted when their newest entry pops up in my reader.

One of the features of the reader that is particularly helpful is the ability to "share" my favorite entries. Then, I can hook the feed straight into a widget on my own blog (look to the right) and share various entries with others. Who knows. You might click on something over there that you like and get hooked on a new blog.

Now if you are like me and you use a reader, you can rock this link and get the feed updated to your reader. Tight.

This is reason #24 that I have a crush on google, and yet another cause for my eternal damnation if google is indeed the mark of the beast.

Fair Dinkum

I'm off to camp in the morning. Me and a busload of inner-city kids. Holla. That being said, it's a 10-day blogging hiatus. I'll be back on July 30, and I'm sure I'll have stories to tell. Later haters.

In about an hour I'm flying back to the LA area to attend a Jr. High Youth Pastor's Summit. I'll be without an internet connection, so the blog is on hiatus until Thursday. I'll be sure to holla at you then.

Fair Dinkum